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Monday, July 8, 2013

4th of July Weekend Recap

Wow! What an exciting and fun filled weekend it was for us! We had a little Army family reunion in St. Louis. Our family of eight formed while we were back at Fort Stewart. Now one couple is in Maryland, one half of a couple is at Fort Bragg, and the other half of the couple and our clan of four at Fort Leonard Wood. We've been able to meet up several times since we've all PCS's and it's been wonderful. This weekend was no different.

On Thursday we all met in St. Louis. We first met at the mall to get some lunch, and Hubs and I each needed to buy a pair of nice shoes since we never repurchased them after they were stolen. From there, we checked into our hotel, which was a dump. I was super disappointed that we were at a Sheraton, yet the furniture was worn down and torn, and the carpet was all stained. The staff wasn't exactly friendly either. The upside of the hotel was it's location. The Gateway Arch was just about a mile away, which made it walkable distance. Good thing too, parking would have been a disaster down there!

Thursday evening we headed down to the Arch to catch the fireworks and concert. Trace Adkins was performing! Even though we couldn't see him from where we were sitting, we could still hear him. There were vendors all over and amazingly, the beer line was the shortest. Yay! Shortly after the concert ended, the fireworks began. It was such an amazing expereince to be able to watch them from under the Arch!

On Friday we switched to a different and much nicer hotel and then hit up Six Flags. Over the weekend, active duty military was free, their dependents were like half price, and if you bought your ticket online it was something like $36. The water park was our first stop. After and hour and a half wait in line, we switched over to the regular amusement park. It was a little difficult since we had two little ones with us, but we still had a great time. We spent some time in the kiddie area where both V and Adri got to go one rides, and then the big people got on a few coasters. Six Flags had fireworks all weekend so we caught them again on the 5th.

Saturday was our beer day! We started at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. While waiting for our tour to begin, we got a free beer in the lobby. We did a short tour where we were able to take photos with the Clydesdales. After the tour, they give you two free beers of your choice. They had a pretty good selection too! I was finally able to try a Straw-ber-rita and it was pretty good! I'll probably be buying them in the near future! From the tour we headed to Grant's Farm, another Anheuser-Busch property. It was like a small zoo with a petting farm. Once we made our way through the farm, there were two more free beers waiting for us. At the end of the day, we were exhausted!

For dinner on Saturday night, we went to Kobe, a hibachi restaurant. It's been a while since I've been to a hibachi place, but it was just as good as I remember. Our chef put on an awesome show. V was a bit freaked out with the fire a couple times, but she ended up liking it. The food was fantastic, although I wasn't a huge fan of the fried rice. I was too stuffed by the end to eat it, so that doesn't really matter. After dinner, we sat in the hotel courtyard and caught up some more.

Sunday was our low-key day since everyone was getting ready to head back home. The morning was spent at the pool and the afternoon consisted of lounging around upstairs. We had a late lunch/early dinner followed by a chat with our brand new financial adviser. It's pretty convenient when one of your best friends is a financial adviser. I know we'll clash occasionally with money decisions, but it's comforting to know that he actually has our best interests in mind.

So that's it!! After a great weekend, we made the two hour drive home and arrived right around bedtime last night. I've got some unpacking to get done today, which means that meal planning and grocery shopping will have to wait until tomorrow. No biggie though. I'm pretty sure we have some sort of leftovers or something in the fridge that I can make up into dinner. You can still join the link up below.

It's going to take me the rest of this week to catch up with my favorite blogs and get some more posts up.

OH! And a GIGANTIC thank you to all of those that supported me in the Top 25 Military Moms competition. I finished in 14th place!!

OMG, the goats at Grant's Farm! I want them all! I want to take them all home and have them live in my backyard. My kids will feed them their bottles. When they fall asleep standing up, I'll poke at them with the secret hope they will fall over. STL isn't exactly my home, but it's close enough!

Welcome

Hey there! I'm Alex; stay at home mom extraordinaire by day and blogger by night. Thanks to the Army, our family currently resides in beautiful, sunny Hawaii. When I have time, I enjoy crafting, photography, cooking and copious amounts of wine. [more]